Inside Al Jazeera

In Rick Zednik's review on the Al Jazeera network he notices that the journalists are not any different from the one's in the U.S. They are sociable, easy-going, and diverse. He felt as though he was stepping foot into an American newsroom at first. Zednik describes how popular the network has become and how far it has expanded. Al Jazeera even has bureau offices in Washington, NY, London, Paris, Brussels, Moscow, Djakarta, and Islamabad. However popular the network has become, the U.S. actually was not aware of it until after the attacks on September 11th. Zednik states:

"Suddenly, Al Jazeera was not only delivering the news to its thirty-five million viewers, including 150,000 in the U.S., it was telling the world's top story to billions of people around the planet via international media that had little choice but to use Al Jazeera's pictures. It was not simply covering
the war; it became an important player in the global battle for public
opinion."

The U.S. government has not been thrilled with Al Jazeera's so-called tactics. The Bush Administration has stated that Al Jazeera is "the mouthpiece of Osama Bin Laden." Al Jazeera news producer Dana Suyyagh states that Bush actually gets more airtime than Bin Laden. The network does not believe they are biased because they give both sides opportunity to give their point of view. There is no doubt that Al Jazeera has become a notible source of world news and is only going to grow in marketability.